Deeply influenced by the social inequalities around her and inspired by her father’s social work in her early age, Shad Begum would become a known figure nationally and internationally because of her determined struggle to improve the conditions of the marginalized segments, especially women, of her community in the northwest of Pakistan – a deeply religious and conservative area where Taliban publically executed men and women on non-conformity to their version of Islam.

Sunday, July 20, 2014

National Policy on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Pakistan

Pakistan is prone to
natural and man-made disasters. A major earthquake in 2005 and floods and
militancy in 2009-2010 caused massive displacements of population, yet we rely
on ad hoc measures in times of crisis. Although
Pakistan has a National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Provincial
Disaster Management Authorities (PDMA) and a FATA Disaster Management Authority
(FDMA) to tackle with both natural and man-made disasters and its aftermath;
however, no statutory or legal framework exists to guide various government
institutions on pre-displacement measures to provide protection, assistance,
relief and rehabilitation to the IDPs. In the current scenario of North Waziristan Agency
IDPs, there is a visible confusion, even competition, among various government
agencies to address the IDPs crisis. In such a scenario, the victims of
disasters are further subjected to the inefficiency of government institutions.

The lack of coordination
and cooperation between the different disaster management authorities and
departments is so evident that FATA Disaster Management Authority (FDMA) puts
the figure of North Waziristan IDPs at 787,888 individuals while the provincial
authority cites it at close to 0.6 million. Even worst, despite these
contradictory claims regarding the actual numbers, a large number of IDPs are
still not registered so far. Unfortunately, only registered IDPs are entitled
to receive assistance, which means that thousands of IDP families are still without
relief assistance since June 15 i.e. the start of the military operation and
displacement in North Waziristan. If the government authorities were better
prepared to handle this crisis, the relief assistance should have started from
day one and IDPs would have not gone through the grill of waiting for hours in the
scorching heat in the month of Ramadan.

PDMA has requested United
Nations Office for Coordination and Humanitarian Affairs(UNOCHA) to provide support in conducting a
rapid needs assessment of the North Waziristan IDPs. The policy of government
to allow work status to national or international humanitarian organizations is
still problematic, as some humanitarian organizations including faith based
organizations are providing the relief assistance to the IDPs while others are
kept waiting for the rapid needs assessment by PDMA. The bureaucratic delays
and lack of coordination among SAFRON,
FDMA, and PDMA have come to a situation that even the Imran Khan Foundation was
initially not allowed to distribute the relief goods among the IDPs in Bannu
because of lack of NOC.

The lack of IDPs
specific legislation and a national policy adversely affects the rights of IDPs
to health and education, adequate shelter and housing, documentation, economic
activities, employment, and also their political rights if the displacement is
prolonged. Article 15 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
entitles its citizens to freedom of movement throughout Pakistan and “to reside
and settle in any part thereof”; however, we recently saw that some provinces
put a ban on the movement of IDPs from North Waziristan. This was in clear
violation of the constitution but taking advantage of the devolution of powers
after the 18th Constitutional Amendment, provinces have taken upon
themselves to decide on matters that have implications for the Federation.

Both in the case of the
Swat-Malakand and the North Waziristan IDP crisis, massive displacements of
population occurred without adequate prior warning. No proper arrangements were
made in time to look after millions of population consisting of women,
children, old age persons and people with disabilities. The government
authorities in Pakistan didn’t allow UN agencies to provide assistance to the
North Waziristan IDPs. The UN and other humanitarian agencies follow the Sphere
Handbook (Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response),
which provides some guiding principles on camp arrangements. Similarly, due to
lack of cultural sensitivity on family cohesion, and women and children’s
special needs, majority of the displaced persons opted to stay in rented houses
or with hosting families.

A regulatory and policy
framework on IDPs enables countries to anticipate disasters, prepare national
plans of action, and focus on various phases of the displacements from relief
to early recovery and rehabilitation. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa alone, still there
are approximately 1.2 million IDPs from various agencies of FATA. Some of these
IDPs have stayed longer in the camps than was anticipated as the security
situation in FATA is still volatile and the displaced families are not
confident to return to their places of origin. Prolonged stay of IDPs in camps,
without adequate arrangements for their economic well-being and social
protections, can lead to harm and conflict between the IDPs and hosting area
population. Very soon the 339,456 IDP children from North Waziristan, most of
them school-going, will need educational facilities. It is worth mentioning
that some of the school buildings are occupied by IDPs because of summer
vacations but soon they will need to be vacated for the children of the host
families. Has the government made necessary plans to accommodate the IDP
children in the educational facilities is a question that will be asked both by
host and IDP population.

To address the policy
gap on IDPs, the UNOCHA and FDMA agreed on a “Return Policy Framework” in 2010
to facilitate the return and rehabilitation of FATA IDPs; however, since the
Federal Ministry of State and Frontier Region (SAFRON) is dealing with the
issues of FATA and frontier regions; therefore, the responsibility of tackling
the issue of IDPs from North Waziristan has been bestowed upon the ministry of
SAFRON by the prime minister. The problem is that majority of the IDPs from
FATA are located in hosting areas that fall within the jurisdiction of the PDMA
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Several countries in the
world, such as Philippines, Ecuador, Chili, and Kenya, have developed policies
for the internally displaced persons. These policies generally deal with
pre-displacement issues to during displacement, and return and rehabilitation
comprehensively. Roles of institutions and government departments are
identified to avoid overlapping and confusion in responsibilities. It is in the
best interest of Pakistan to develop a national framework for dealing with
natural and man-made disasters in a more efficient manner.

[1]
Shad Begum is a human rights activist from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan and a
recipient of international women of courage award

Links

About Me

Shad Begum is the
founder and executive director of the non-profit Association for Behaviour
& Knowledge Transformation (ABKT). Her organization was uprooted during the
Taliban take-over in Swat due to massive displacement of people in 2009-2010.
Her resilience kept ABKT alive during enormous odds. Shad Begum is Ashoka
fellow and in recognition of her untiring struggle for the economic and
political empowerment of women and girls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; she was awarded
the “International Woman Courage Award” in 2012 by the U.S. Department of
State.

Honours and Awards

Certificate of recognition on outstanding contribution to food production
& house hold food security Prime Minister of Pakistan

Best social worker award, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Directorate
of Social Welfare & Women Development Department

ASHOKA life time fellowship ASHOKA international, Washington DC

Prize for Creativity in Rural Life from
Women’s World Summit Foundation (WWSF) Geneva

International Woman
of Courage Award 2012 from State
Department United States of America (USA)